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Effects of Keeping Animals as Pets on Children's
Concepts of Vertebrates and Invertebrates
Pavol Prokop a; Matej Prokop a; Sue D. Tunnicliffe b
a
Trnava University, Slovakia
b
Institute of Education, University of London, UK
First Published on: 11 June 2007
To cite this Article: Prokop, Pavol, Prokop, Matej and Tunnicliffe, Sue D. (2007)
'Effects of Keeping Animals as Pets on Children's Concepts of Vertebrates and
Invertebrates', International Journal of Science Education, 30:4, 431 - 449
To link to this article: DOI: 10.1080/09500690701206686
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International Journal of Science Education
Vol. 30, No. 4, 19 March 2008, pp. 431–449
RESEARCH REPORT
Effects of Keeping Animals as Pets on
Children’s Concepts of Vertebrates and
Invertebrates
Pavol Prokopa*, Matej Prokopa and Sue D. Tunnicliffeb
aTrnava
University, Slovakia; bInstitute of Education, University of London, UK
0PavolProkop
00
[email protected]
000002007
International
10.1080/09500690701206686
TSED_A_220589.sgm
0950-0693
Original
Taylor
2007
and
&
Article
Francis
(print)/1464-5289
Francis
JournalLtd
of Science
(online)
Education
Looking after pets provides several benefits in terms of children’s social interactions, and factual
and conceptual knowledge about these animals. In this study we investigated effects of rearing
experiences on children’s factual knowledge and alternative conceptions about animals. Data
obtained from 1,541 children and 7,705 drawings showed very strong bias towards rearing vertebrates and a general ignorance of invertebrates. Experiences with rearing animals significantly
contributed to children’s knowledge about animal’s internal organs. Children who reported keeping two or more animals acquired better scores in our study than children keeping only one or no
animals. Moreover, the misclassification of invertebrates was not influenced by children’s experiences of keeping animals. Although girls showed better knowledge about the anatomy of animals
and actually kept more animals than did boys, they also more frequently misclassified invertebrates
by drawing bones inside the bodies of the animals, hence allocating them to the vertebrates. We
propose that science activities with animals should be more focused on rearing invertebrates and
improving children’s attitudes and knowledge about them.
Introduction
Children’s acquisition of biological knowledge has attracted a number of psychologists and educational researchers. Carey (1985) claimed that children before around
the age of 10 (i.e., below Grade 5 in Slovakia) make predictions and explanations for
biological phenomena based on intuitive psychology. This means that young children misunderstand biological phenomena as a psychological one and thus have an
undifferentiated psychology and biology theory (Jaakkola & Slaughter, 2002).
Carey’s approach has been evaluated and criticized (E.g., Hatano & Inagaki, 1997)
and current experimental works rather suggest that children’s biology is constructed
through daily experience in the early years (Hatano & Inagaki, 1997).
*Corresponding author. Department of Biology, University of Trnava, Faculty of Education,
Priemyselna 4, PO Box 9, Trnava, SK-91843, Slovakia. Email: [email protected]
ISSN 0950-0693 (print)/ISSN 1464-5289 (online)/08/040431–19
© 2008 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/09500690701206686
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432 P. Prokop et al.
Teixeira (2000), using as an example the human digestive system, they found that
children posses biological knowledge as an independent knowledge domain from the
age of 4. Jaakkola and Slaughter (2002) proposed the same for 4–6-year-old children
for their understanding of body functioning.
The evidence thus suggests that a child’s biology experience influences their
concepts about living organisms. However, few studies examined this question
empirically. Inagaki (1990) investigated 5-year-old children’s knowledge about goldfish. She found that children who had experienced keeping goldfish acquired a
greater amount of both factual and conceptual knowledge about goldfish compared
with children who had never raised any goldfish. In addition, the goldfish-raising
children could use their knowledge about goldfish as a source in making predictions
about the anatomy of an unfamiliar animal (a frog). Inagaki thus concluded that,
because there were no differences between the two groups in reasonable predictions
for humans, differences in factual and conceptual knowledge between groups were
“primarily due to the specific experience of raising goldfish” (Inagaki, 1990, p. 119).
Strommen (1995) found that primary children living in a rural habitat (i.e., close to
a forest) had better knowledge about forest inhabitants than did urban children.
More frequent visits to the forest by children resulted in a better knowledge amongst
those children of the organisms living in the forest. Tunnicliffe and Reiss (1999a)
found that basic knowledge about animals is more influenced by information from
home and direct observations. However, in contrast they found that books, school,
or multimedia seemed to be relatively less important sources of knowledge about
animals for the children interviewed. Some other researchers (e.g., Shepardson,
2002), investigating children’s ideas about insects, did not examine the effect of children’s personal experiences on their knowledge about insects explicitly. More
currently, Tarlowski (2006) found that the effects of direct experiences with nature
(examined indirectly by comparing rural versus urban children) and the biological
expertise of parents affected the concepts of humans, mammals and insects held by
4-year-old children.
This brief review shows that there are a limited number of works examining the
effects of children’s direct biology experience on their knowledge about animals.
Moreover, the majority of existing work has been carried out mostly on preschool or
primary school children and with limited sample sizes, which makes generalization of
these findings disputable. A very specific problem in this topic is research of children’s
misconception (i.e., conceptions that differ from those of scientists; see Fisher, 1985)
or alternative conception (Trowbridge & Mintzes, 1985, 1988) about animals. While
stable alternative conceptions develop before and during the early school years and
persist relatively unchanged into adulthood, progressive alternative conceptions
seem to yield more readily to formal instruction and/or non-school experiences
(Trowbridge & Mintzes, 1988). Yip (1998) distinguished between misconceptions
that are generated either through children’s life experiences or “naïve” explanations
related to more complex or abstract phenomena that are not related to personal experiences. Some misconceptions are formed as a result of a lack of understanding during
instruction, and other sources of misconceptions come from teachers (Yip, 1998).
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Keeping Pets Influences Children’s Ideas 433
The present study is focused on concepts about animals in children of various age
groups. Thus, concepts of younger children could not be affected by formal instruction and could not be attributed to the results of personal experiences. In contrast,
alternative conceptions of animals in older children could be attributed to a lack of
understanding during formal instruction in biology. The former group could be
named “naïve” concepts (Mintzes, 1984) and the latter group could be named
“misconceptions” (Fisher, 1985). We used only a single term; “alternative conception” (Arnaudin & Mintzes, 1985) for a simple description of concepts that are
different from scientific conceptions throughout the text.
Alternative conceptions in science may be characterized as follows: they are found
in males and females of all ages, abilities, social classes, and cultures. Such everyday
ideas or alternative conceptions serve a useful function in the everyday lives of
people. However, these everyday beliefs are often resistant to conventional teaching
approaches and they interact with knowledge presented by teachers, with resultant
unintended learning outcomes. These alternative conceptions may resemble the
ideas of previous generations of natural philosophers; they are products of direct
observation, everyday language, the mass media, and peer culture, and they are
found frequently amongst teachers as well as students (Munson, 1994; Yen, Yao, &
Chiu 2004).
Several research reports showed children’s alternative conceptions in classifying
animals. For example, Bell (1981) found that only 50% of children knew that frogs
are amphibian. Approximately one-third of elementary school children incorrectly
thought that a tortoise is an amphibian (Bell, 1981; Braund, 1998; Yen et al., 2004).
Similarly, visual absence of limbs in snakes and their movement similar to worms
probably is why snakes are frequently misclassified as invertebrates (Braund, 1998;
Yen et al., 2004). Also, from the children’s point of view, penguins are mammals
because they are flightless and live in the sea (Braund, 1991; Trowbridge & Mintzes,
1985, 1988). Habitat and movement patterns seem to be the most important cues
when children classify an animal (Kattmann, 2001). The effect of children’s firsthand experiences on their ability to classify animal are poor. Only Braund (1998)
noted that those children who visited a zoo or museums or engaged in bird-watching
and fishing were more successful in animal classification than other children.
However, his conclusion is based on a limited sample size (115 children from six age
groups) without providing any statistical evidence.
Purpose
This cross-age study was focused on the effects of keeping various animals themselves on children’s knowledge and alternative conceptions about the internal structure of animals. The ideas and knowledge of children about the internal structure of
animals was selected for study because this is an integral part of biology. Children’s
interest in biology correlates with their out-of-school experiences (Uitto, Juuti,
Lavonen, & Meisalo, 2006), thus it is reasonable to test whether any relationship
exists between the experiences had in keeping animals and knowledge about animals
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434 P. Prokop et al.
(in terms of animal internal structure). Moreover, previous research on children’s
ideas about internal skeletons of animals (Tunnicliffe & Reiss, 1999b) did not examine children’s biology experiences on their knowledge about skeletons.
This paper explores the following questions: (1) What is Slovakian children’s
knowledge about internal structure of vertebrates and invertebrates? (2) How much
do children’s concepts about vertebrates and invertebrates change from the first to
ninth grade (from age 6 to age 15)? (3) Does the keeping of animals have any effect
on children’s concepts of internal structure of vertebrates and invertebrates? and (4)
Does keeping animals have any effect on children’s conceptions in classification of
invertebrates?
Methods
A total of 1,544 children (6–15 years old) from six randomly selected Slovak
elementary schools participated in the study. These schools had between 400 and
1,000 children on the roll of the school. After teachers agreed to participate in our
research, one of us visited the school and administered a questionnaire with tasks
(see below). Initially, each child was given a sheet of paper with the questionnaire
that asked for several details that could potentially affect their knowledge about
animal anatomy. The children were asked (1) for their age/grade, (2) for their sex,
(3) if they kept any animals as pets, and, if yes, (4) what animal species they kept
themselves as pets. A few children also included hens, which can be classified as
farm animals rather than pets. We included these children in the analyses because,
even after removing them, it did not qualitatively change the results of the study.
We also controlled for the effect of parents’ education level that could influence
children’s attitudes toward science (George & Kaplan, 1998). From this demographic data we indirectly inferred about the socioeconomic background of the
children (McLoyd, 1998) as follows: completion of only elementary school by
parents was classified as Level 1, high school as Level 2, and university as Level 3.
Because mothers’ and fathers’ educational level significantly correlated (r = 0.53, p
< .001, n = 1,541), we used the mean level of both parents educational level in the
analyses.
Both taxidermically prepared invertebrates (the Stag beetle Lucanus cervus and
the crawfish Astacus astacus) and vertebrates (fish Scardinius erythrophthalmus, the
European starling Sturnus vulgaris, and rat Rattus norvegicus) were shown to all children each on a single occasion, making a total of five visits to the school in all. The
order of presenting animals to children was random. The animals used were chosen
because of their potential familiarity with Slovakian children. All of the species are
relatively common in Slovakia.
After filling in the demographic data, the children were asked to draw what they
thought was inside each animal specimen when the animals were alive. We recognized and scored separately the organ systems in each drawing to a seven-point
scale first designed and used by Tunnicliffe and Reiss (1999c, 2001) (Table 1, and
see Figure 1 for an example). Two of us separately and independently scored the
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Keeping Pets Influences Children’s Ideas 435
Figure 1.
Year 12 girl’s drawing of a rat scored on Level 6 (i.e., two major systems, the
respiratory and digestive, are indicated)
drawings. In the few cases where our scorings differed we discussed the drawing
until we agreed on the level to be awarded. The presence of an internal skeleton
inside invertebrates was scored separately (see Figure 2 for an example), because its
presence refers about misclassification of invertebrates with vertebrates. Three
participants failed to provide details about their sex or age and were not included in
statistical analyses. Thus, data from 7,705 drawings obtained from 788 boys and
753 girls were included in analyses and were used as dependent variables in the
statistical tests.
Figure 2.
1. Year 212boy’s
girl’sdrawing
drawingofofaacrawfish
rat scored
with
on internal
Level 6 skeletons
(i.e., two major
scoredsystems,
on Levelthe
2 (i.e.,
respiratory
only brain
and is
digestive,
placed atare
appropriate
indicated)position)
Results
General Patterns of Children’s Ideas about What is Inside Animals
Scores of drawn vertebrates and invertebrates were submitted to principal component analysis, which extracted only one factor and explained 76.5% of total variance
(Eigenvalue = 3.78). This means that the children’s drawings showed very consistent patterns and were internally related. Reliability analysis (Cronbach’s alpha =
0.92) and high internal correlation between scores (r = 0.7) also confirmed this
suggestion (Nunnaly, 1978). In order to maintain an objective approach when scoring children’s drawings, one independent researcher unfamiliar with our previous
ratings scored drawings of 100 randomly selected children from various age classes
following the same criteria of the scoring system (Tunnicliffe & Reiss, 2001). We
then examined the relationships between scores from the independent researcher
and our original data obtained from the same 100 children by the use of Pearson’s
correlation coefficient. We found highly significant correlations ranged from 0.93 to
0.96 (all p < .001) for the score from each animal being drawn. These results also
confirmed that our scoring system was reliable.
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436 P. Prokop et al.
Figure 2.
Year 2 boy’s drawing of a crawfish with internal skeletons scored on Level 2 (i.e., only
brain is placed at appropriate position)
The most frequently organ drawn by approximately two-thirds of all children was
the heart. The lungs, stomach, brain, intestines, and liver were also drawn relatively
often. In contrast, the endocrine, reproductive organs, and muscles were drawn
least frequently. A comprehensive representation of the two or three major systems
(Level 6; 2.7% of all drawings) or four or more organ systems (Level 7; 0.05% of all
drawings) was relatively rare. Drawings of one (Level 3; 30% of all drawings) or
Table 1.
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5
Level 6
Level 7
Seven-point scale used for scoring organ systems (Tunniciffe & Reiss, 2001)
No representation of internal structure
One or more organs (e.g., bones and blood) placed at random
One internal organ (e.g., brain or heart) in appropriate position
Two or more internal organs (e.g., stomach and intestine) in appropriate positions
but no relationships indicated between them
One system indicated (e.g., gut connecting head to anus or connections between
heart and blood vessels)
Two or three major systems indicated out of skeletal, circulatory, digestive,
gaseous exchange, reproductive, excretory and nervous
Comprehensive representation with four or more systems indicated out of skeletal,
circulatory, digestive, gaseous exchange, reproductive, excretory and nervous
more internal organs (Level 4; 35% of all drawings) in the appropriate position
were most frequent. A total of 942 drawings (12%) contained one or more organs
placed at random (level 2) and other drawings contained only silhouettes without
internal organs.
Significance of the Animal being Drawn
Figure 3 shows the mean level of drawings per each animal species that was drawn
by each child (n = 1,541). One-way analysis of variance with a score per each animal
species as the dependent variable and animal species as the factor revealed significant differences in the level of drawings between species (F4, 7700 = 25.406, p <
.001). A Tukey comparison of group means showed that the internal structure of
crawfish did significantly differ from all other animals (p < .001). The stag beetle
was drawn relatively better than the crawfish, but the mean level for the bird was
significantly greater (p = .003) and the level for the mammal also tended to differ
significantly from the stag beetle (p = .07). Fish tended to be drawn on a somewhat
lower mean level than the bird (p = .06) and the bird and mammal were drawn at a
similar level (p = .87).
A typical feature of misunderstanding of internal organs in invertebrates was
drawing of a gaseous exchange system. Virtually all drawings of the stag beetle (35%
of children) included the respiratory system in drawings of the stag beetle, and in
drawings of crawfish 48% of children included the respiratory system in drawings.
These drawings showed a typical higher vertebrate lung and did not contain breathing tubes (in case of stag beetle) or the plume-like gills that are located in gill chambers on each side of the body (in case of crawfish). These results could be attributed
to lack of knowledge for children up to age 11. However, older children should
recognize between vertebrate and invertebrate respiratory system, but we failed to
find evidences for such a tendency.
Figure 3. Differences in the mean score of drawings of animals drawn by children ( n = 1,541)
Mean level ± SE
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Keeping Pets Influences Children’s Ideas 437
3.4
3.3
3.2
3.1
3.0
2.9
2.8
2.7
Crawfish Stag Beetle
Fish
Bird
Mammal
Animal
Figure 3.
Differences in the mean score of drawings of animals drawn by children (n = 1,541)
438 P. Prokop et al.
As could be predicted, the mean level of drawings significantly increased as children
became older (Figure 4). More detailed data with respect to age differences are
presented in Table 2.
This trend was consistent for drawings of all animal species. The lowest score was
found among youngest children aged 6–8. After Grade 3 (i.e., around age 9) the
mean score rapidly increased. The former group of children typically drew one or
more organs placed at random position inside an animal (Level 2–3). These
patterns correspond with Slovak biology curriculum. Children from Grade 1 are
unfamiliar with animal anatomy from being taught in a formal learning process.
Children from Grade 2 learn about basic morphology, but not about the anatomy of
the honey bee, Apis mellifera. Even so, children in the end of Grade 3 should be
aware of basic facts of human anatomy. Thus, increasing scores slightly exceeding
that of Level 3 in children gained by Grade 4 and 5 children could be attributed to
their ability to make analogies between human and animal anatomy. Although sixth
graders (age 11/12) should be aware about the internal organs of animals and reach
relatively better scores than younger children, mean scores per each animal being
drawn (around 3.5) indicate that these children drew up to two internal organs in
appropriate position. Children from Grade 9 (age 14/15) drew more than one organ
in an appropriate position, but usually without deeper relationships between them
(Level 4). However, these children should have comprehensive knowledge about
anatomy of animals (from Grade 6) and human (from Grades 7 and 9). It is interesting to note that the mean score of seventh graders who were currently learning
human anatomy unexpectedly decreased relative to that of the sixth and eighth
graders. This trend was consistent for all species, but the cause of this phenomenon
remains unclear.
Figure 4. Age-related differences in mean scores obtained from children’s drawings ( N = 7,705) of animal internal organs
4.5
4
Mean level
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Effect of Age
Crawfish
Stag Beetle
3.5
Fish
3
Bird
Mammal
2.5
2
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Grade
Figure 4.
Age-related differences in mean scores obtained from children’s drawings (n = 7,705)
of animal internal organs
Keeping Pets Influences Children’s Ideas 439
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Table 2.
Means and standard errors for drawings of five animal species with respect to age
(n = 1,541 participants)
Crawfish
Grade
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Stag beetle
Fish
Bird
Mammal
M
SE
M
SE
M
SE
M
SE
M
SE
n
2.61
2.59
2.65
3.00
3.17
3.11
2.55
2.92
3.02
0.11
0.09
0.09
0.09
0.09
0.08
0.08
0.09
0.09
2.69
2.69
2.83
3.15
3.28
3.54
2.86
3.10
3.67
0.10
0.09
0.09
0.08
0.09
0.08
0.08
0.09
0.09
2.54
2.56
2.69
3.00
3.14
3.68
2.96
3.39
4.17
0.11
0.09
0.09
0.09
0.09
0.08
0.08
0.09
0.09
2.66
2.66
2.70
3.15
3.26
3.78
3.15
3.58
4.26
0.12
0.10
0.10
0.09
0.10
0.09
0.09
0.10
0.10
2.54
2.75
2.73
3.16
3.19
3.70
3.06
3.54
4.13
0.12
0.10
0.10
0.09
0.10
0.09
0.09
0.10
0.10
114
170
161
192
166
205
205
160
168
Keeping Animals
A total of 1,252 children reported experiences with looking after 2,438 animals as
pets. The types of animal kept were categorized into 16 animal taxa. The mean
number of reported animals per children was 1.51 with a range of 0–12. Looking
after a single animal was reported by 40% of all children, about 20% not looking
after an animal, 17% reported keeping two animals, 11% reported keeping three
animals, and 8% cared for four animals. Keeping more than four animals was
reported by the remaining 4% of participants. The most frequently cited animals
with respect to age are presented in Table 3. Dog, cat, and hamster were reported by
Table 3.
The most reported animals reared by Slovakian children with respect to age (n = 1,541
participants)
Animals reported as pets (%)
Grade
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
% of all
animals
Number
Guinea
of reported
Dog Cat Hamster Fish Parrot Tortoise Rabbit pig Mouse Hen Other animals
40.8
37.2
41.8
32.3
34.9
32.3
38.2
31.2
33.5
35.0
13.6
15.3
7.4
11.5
16.4
11.7
13.1
15.5
11.4
12.9
4.8
8.7
5.8
8.6
11.5
12.8
10.5
13.2
11.7
10.5
9.6 8.8
13.1 7.1
15.9 6.3
10.5 10.9
7.1 8.9
10.7 10.1
6.3 12.5
9.5 7.3
10.4 9.2
10.0 9.4
5.6
7.7
10.1
10.5
7.8
8.3
7.7
8.2
9.8
8.6
9.6
5.5
3.7
4.5
4.1
5.1
4.6
6.3
1.9
4.7
4.8
2.7
5.3
4.8
3.3
3.2
2.8
1.6
4.7
3.6
0.0
1.1
0.0
1.3
1.5
1.6
1.1
1.9
2.2
1.4
0.0
0.5
0.5
1.6
1.9
0.8
1.1
0.9
0.9
1.0
2.4
1.1
3.2
3.5
2.6
3.5
2.0
4.4
4.1
3.1
125
183
189
313
269
375
351
317
316
–
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440 P. Prokop et al.
the majority of children. Although the distribution of the types of animal kept as pets
across all age groups was rather equal, it must be noted that hamster and “other
animals” were reported among older children more frequently. Vertebrates were
cited more frequently than invertebrates as pets. Just three children reported keeping
tarantulas (Brachypelma sp.), one reported ants of unknown species, and six other
children reported keeping unspecified insects. No further reports on invertebrates
were found.
Although the proportion of boys and girls keeping animals was similar (631 of 788
boys, 80%; and 621 of 753 girls, 82.5%), the mean number of kept animals per girl
was significantly greater than that for boys (1.68 ± 0.05 vs 1.36 ± 0.05, t = −4.8, df =
1,542, p < .0001) even after controlling for the effect of age.
Effect of Keeping Animals on Children’s Knowledge of Vertebrates and Invertebrates
Children were categorized according to their experiences with rearing animals into
three groups: no keepers (n = 327), children who reported keeping one animal (n =
633), and children who reported to keep two and more animals (n = 581). This categorization indirectly refers to experiences with keeping animals. One would predict
that keeping more than one animal may result in greater personal experiences than
keeping just one or no animal. Multivariate analysis of covariance with score per
each animal drawn (dependent variables), category of the number of rearing animals
(factor), and gender (factor) was controlled for the effect of the child’s age. Parents’
educational level (covariates) was used to test the effects of selected factors on children’s knowledge about animal internal organs. The use of covariates yields tests
uncontaminated by individual differences in age and parents’ educational level.
The results showed a significant effect of animal rearing on the mean score of organ
system from drawings (F10, 3030 = 1.89, p < .05). Gender (girls > boys, F5,1515 =
2.55, p < .05) and both two covariates (Each p < .001) showed also significant effect.
When the child reared two or more animals, the mean level of drawing were significantly higher than if they did not keep any animal or keep just one animal (Figure 5).
A Tukey post-hoc test for univariate results showed that mentioned differences were
statistically significant (p < .001) for all animals. The effect of gender was significant
for all animals except for the fish (p = .15), which suggests that girls have better
knowledge about animal internal organs than did boys. Unfortunately, the extremely
low number of children that reported keeping invertebrates (see above) did not allow
us to examine whether children keeping invertebrates have also a better understanding of the internal organs of invertebrates than do other children.
Figure 5. Effect of keeping animals on children’s knowledge about what is inside animals (black bars, children that did not report keeping any animal; grey bars, children that reported keeping a single animal; open bars, children that reported keeping two or more animal species)
Alternative Conception of Invertebrates
A substantial number of children’s drawings of internal structures of invertebrates
contained bones (Figure 6). Bones more probably occurred in drawings of the stag
beetle (373 of 1,541, 24.2%) relative to crawfish (248 of 1,541, 16.1%) (χ2 = 18.12,
p < .001).
Keeping Pets Influences Children’s Ideas 441
3.5
Mean level ± SE
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4.0
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
Crawfish
Stag Beetle
Fish
Bird
Mammal
Animal
Figure 5. Effect of keeping animals on children’s knowledge about what is inside animals (black
bars, children that did not report keeping any animal; grey bars, children that reported keeping a
single animal; open bars, children that reported keeping two or more animal species)
Potential factors that could influence children’s alternative conception of invertebrates were examined by multiple logistic regression, which allows us to test multiple independent variables on a dependent variable that is binomially distributed
(i.e., the presence or absence of bones inside invertebrates). The results are very
consistent and show that age and differences caused by gender may explain the children’s misunderstandings of internal structures of both crawfish and the stag beetle
(Table 3). In both cases, age showed negative correlations with the presence of an
internal skeleton inside crawfish (Spearman rank correlation rs = −0.22) and the
stag beetle (rs = −0.19) (p < .001, respectively). A rapid decrease of incorrect drawings can be found from Grade 6 (age 11) where children are learning zoology in
school (Figure 6). The most frequent occurrence of drawings with alternative
conception was found among second graders (age 7), but more than 10% of older
children (Grade 8 and 9 ages 13–15) still showed they held scientifically incorrect
ideas about the internal structure of the two invertebrates (Figure 6). Girls showed
significantly greater number of drawings with alternative concepts relative to boys
(Figure 7).
Other factors remain non-significant (Table 3). It is important to note that children who reported keeping at least one animal (1,252 of 1541) also had parents with
a higher educational level (analysis of covariance controlled for the effect of age, F1,
1526 = 14.69, p ≤ .0001), but neither keeping animals nor parents’ educational level
influenced children’s alternative conceptions per se (Table 4).
Figure 7.
6. Gender
Occurrence
differences
of misclassification
in the misclassification
of invertebrates
of invertebrates
among Slovakian
(black bars,
elementary
boys; grey
school
bars,
children
girls).(**
n =p 1,541)
< .01 (black bars, crawfish; grey bars, stag beetle)
Discussion
Our study provided empirical evidence for the significance of keeping animals on
children’s factual knowledge about the anatomy of animals. Children with greater
Frequency of occurence (%)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Grade
Figure 6.
Occurrence of misclassification of invertebrates among Slovakian elementary school
children (n = 1,541) (black bars, crawfish; grey bars, stag beetle)
experience of looking after animals as pets showed a better knowledge when drawing
internal organs of several animal species compared with children that did not report
keeping any animal.
Effects of Keeping Pets and Age of Children
Keeping pets has been reported elsewhere to provide benefits in children’s factual
and conceptual knowledge about animals (Inagaki, 1990), a positive attitude, better
social interactions with friends, and leisure activities (Paul & Serpell, 1996), and
35
Frequency of occurence (%)
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442 P. Prokop et al.
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Crawfish**
Stag Beetle**
Animal
Figure 7.
Gender differences in the misclassification of invertebrates (black bars, boys; grey bars,
girls). **p < .01
Keeping Pets Influences Children’s Ideas 443
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Table 4.
Effect of selected variables (factors) on Slovakian children’s alternative conceptions of
invertebrates
Crawfish
Stag beetle
Factor
df
Wald’s χ2
p
df
Wald’s χ2
p
Age
Parent educational level
Gender
Raising animals
Gender × raising animals
1
1
1
1
1
61.36
0.46
10.87
0.0008
1.83
.001
.49
.0009
.98
.18
1
1
1
1
1
79.09
1.67
11.47
0.009
0.059
.0001
.2
.0007
.92
.81
better health (Serpell, 1991) relative to non-keepers. Moreover, some researchers
propose that pet keeping in childhood may have important effects on children’s
self-esteem, social skills and empathy (Covert, Whiren, Keith, & Nelson, 1985;
Poresky & Hendrix, 1990). Thus, putting these evidences together, Slovakian
elementary school children benefit from their keeping of animals in that their
factual knowledge about the animal’s internal anatomy is greater. The positive
effect of children’s age on their knowledge of anatomy is predictable. A similar
effect was reported for children’s understanding of animal skeletons (Tunnicliffe &
Reiss, 1999b) or human (Reiss & Tunnicliffe, 2001) or animals’ internal organs
(Tunnicliffe & Reiss, 2001; Prokop, Prokop, Tunnicliffe & Diran, 2007).
Significance of Gender
More surprisingly, gender differences failed to play significant role in the aforementioned studies. We found that girls kept more animal that did boys, which is
consistent with Lindemann-Matthies’s (2005) finding from Switzerland. Girls’
preferences for having pets can be explained by the higher interest toward wild
animals shown by boys relative to ‘traditional’ domestic pets (LindemannMatthies, 2005). Better knowledge of the animal’s anatomy and greater interest
toward keeping pets seems to positively influence factual knowledge about internal
organs of animals in girls, because girls scored better in drawings of internal organs
than did boys. In contrast, girls expressed significantly more alternative conceptions about invertebrates than did boys, which seems to contradict with girls’
better score from internal organs of vertebrates and invertebrates. We suggest that
these contradictory results may result from different attitudes of boys toward biology and consequently from their personal experiences with live organisms. Millett
and Lock (1992) found that boys show a higher willingness to carry out experiments with live organisms. Unlike girls, boys also express a higher interest in wild
animals (Strommen, 1995; Lindemann-Matthies, 2005). Thus, boys would have
greater personal experiences with invertebrates from the field, and consequently
better concepts about the presence or absence of an internal skeleton in the bodies
of invertebrates.
444 P. Prokop et al.
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Alternative Conceptions about Animals
Children are probably able to make analogies to unfamiliar animals (Inagaki, 1990),
which was confirmed by a better score from drawings of invertebrates obtained by
those children who kept animals (mostly vertebrates) regardless of their poor experiences with invertebrates. In contrast, however, the respiratory system of invertebrates is very different from those of higher vertebrates and possible “making
analogies” resulted in incorrect drawings of crawfish and stag beetle’s respiratory
systems. Incorrect drawings of younger children (up to Grade 6) are perhaps reasonable, because they could be a simple result of their poor knowledge about the respiratory system of invertebrates. However, the resistance to change the model of
vertebrate to invertebrate respiratory system in children from Grade 6 and older fit
the criteria of alternative conceptions that are hard to change through the formal
learning process (e.g., Munson, 1994).
It must be noted that our analysis of children’s drawings failed to find an
expected level of knowledge about animal anatomy in Slovakian children. In Slovakian schools, biology is taught separately from other science subjects. Children aged
8/9 years (Grade 3) are taught basic facts of human anatomy, such as the position
and function of major organs in the human body. Thus, the least expected level of
organ systems is 2 or 3 (one or more organs placed at random), because children
do not learn animal anatomy explicitly until this age group. These results are
corroborated by our study. Then, older children learn more precise anatomy of
vertebrates and invertebrates at age 11/12 (Grade 6) and human anatomy at age 12/
13 (Grade 7). This means that children older than 11/12 years should have developed comprehensive concepts about placement and functions of particular organs
and organ systems of various animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates.
Ninth graders (age 14/15) have mixed model biology teaching that includes ecology, general zoology and human biology. Most of these topics serve as a final recapitulation and synthesis of children’s previous biology knowledge. The mean score
of these children should vary between 5 and 7 (i.e., at least one or more organ
systems indicated). However, we show that the mean score of each animal being
drawn did not exceed 4.5, which suggests that children drew mostly organs placed
in appropriate position but without connections with other organs, thus showing no
understanding of systems. Because no data from other, simultaneously used,
research methods were obtained, we cannot be sure whether Slovakian children’s
understanding of animal organs is poor or whether there are serious problems with
how children understand animal anatomy. Further research in this area is therefore
necessary.
A significant proportion of children showed misunderstandings of internal organs
of invertebrates and ascribed an internal skeleton to them in their drawings. This
drawing of bones inside invertebrates was mostly among younger children (up
to age of 10). This finding is in agreement with the rapid increase of children’s
biology knowledge in this age category (e.g., Carey, 1985; Teixeira, 2000; Jaakkola
& Slaughter, 2002), but it also correlates with the Slovakian biology curriculum.
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Keeping Pets Influences Children’s Ideas 445
Children aged 11 (Grade 6) start to learn zoology, which includes both the biology
of invertebrates and vertebrates. Thus, the positive effect of school may be a significant predictor in elimination of children’s misunderstanding of animal classification. Despite this, up to 20% of children older than age 11 still thought that
crawfish or the stag beetle has an internal skeleton. A very similar proportion of
North Carolina elementary and junior school children classified a crab (comparable crustacean with crawfish) as a vertebrate (Trowbridge & Mintzes, 1985).
Trowbridge and Mintzes (1988) in their follow-up study showed that crawfish was
misclassified as a vertebrate by about 31–42% of elementary and high school
students. Interestingly, about 5% of college biology majors expressed the same
alternative conception. The spider was misclassified significantly less frequently (1–
10% of all participants) relative to crawfish, which suggests that classification of
crawfish is more problematic than classification of other invertebrates, perhaps due
to large size that is typical mostly for vertebrates. In fact, classification of smaller
invertebrates such as ants or spiders seems to be less problematic, because nearly
all 8–10-year-old children identified spider and ant correctly as invertebrates
(Braund, 1998). Typical beetles are also correctly classified as insects virtually by
all the 12–15/16-year-old children (Braund, 1991). Our data confirm the current
knowledge that alternative conceptions are present in other cultures (Wandersee,
Mintzes, & Novak, 1994). The higher proportion of stag beetles drawn with internal skeleton is puzzling, but perhaps children’s experiences with crawfish as food
can explain this difference. During eating crawfish, children could see that no
internal skeleton is present.
Role of Interest in Children’s Ideas about Animals
We cannot be sure if previous interest toward animals resulted in keeping pets and
then activities (e.g., reading books/watching films about animals) could influence
girls’ better knowledge, because our data have empirical, not experimental, character.
Girls’ more positive attitudes toward biology have been shown by several researchers
(Keeves & Kotte, 1992; Jones, Howe, & Rua, 2000; Osborne, 2003), who indirectly
support the idea that owning pets together with interest in biology could result in
higher factual knowledge about animal’ anatomies. Girls are additionally more interested in human biology than boys (Dawson, 2000; Baram-Tsabari & Yarden, 2005;
Uitto et al., 2006) and drawings of human anatomy are related to animal anatomy in
children’s drawings (Tunnicliffe & Reiss, 1999b, 2001). Therefore, girls’ knowledge
about human biology could be applied to animals.
Another significant problem identified in our study was a general ignorance of
children about keeping and caring for invertebrates. Just a few children reported
keeping spiders, ants, and some other invertebrates, and this finding was probably a
cause of relatively lower knowledge about crawfish and the stag beetle amongst the
children. This is because adults and children tend to avoid invertebrates, because
they are small and behaviourally and morphologically unfamiliar to humans (Wilson,
1987; Kellert, 1993; Davey, 1994).
446 P. Prokop et al.
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Limitations of the Study
Two aspects of our research limit results of the present study. First of all, we used
only a single method of children’s drawing to examine children’s knowledge about
animal anatomy. We acknowledge that a more intensive methodology, for example
one that combined drawings with subsequent interviews (see White & Gunstone,
1994), would allow children more fully to demonstrate their understanding. For
example, in some cases it was difficult for us to identify certain of the internal organs
drawn. Interviewing would have allowed us to resolve at least some such uncertainties.
On the other hand, interviews generally result in limited sample sizes, which is partly
compensated for by the large number of participants used in our research. Also, we
did not ask children whether they lived on farms or not. Recent studies suggest that
experiences with interactions with animals, especially in early childhood, are associated with long-term animal-related preferences and attitudes (Ascione, 1993; Paul &
Serpell, 1993) and future career choice (Serpell, 2005). Although we are not aware
that owning a pet would result in different attitude/experiences with animals in
comparison with keeping farm animals only, we agree that this categorization would
also result in more accurate results. On the other hand, keeping farm animals such as
hens was reported by a very small sample of children which make these comparisons
problematic.
Secondly, our instruction of children to draw what is inside animals was not directly
focused on the presence of bones. More specifically, children were not aware that we
were also interested in their ideas about bones inside animals and they therefore
included animal skeletons less frequently than other organ systems (Khwaja & Saxton,
2001). We, however, controlled for this possibility by excluding vertebrates from the
analysis of the presence or absence of an internal skeleton and only invertebrates were
used. This was because the absence of bones inside a vertebrate could not mean definitely that children have not developed a mental model of an animal skeleton (Khwaja
& Saxton, 2001). However, the presence of bones inside an invertebrate clearly refers
to a misunderstanding of the internal skeleton and our analysis therefore does not
contain misinterpretation of this fact. In other words, our results report the least
number of children that misclassified invertebrates as vertebrates, but this number
cannot be considered definite.
Conclusion
Keeping pets significantly contributes to children’s factual knowledge about the
anatomy of animals, especially of vertebrates. Ignorance of invertebrates because of
the few children who keep such species probably influences the results about
misunderstandings of invertebrates’ internal skeleton. Another alternative, which is
not mutually exclusive, is the lack of teaching about invertebrates. We suggest that
biology/science teachers should encourage children to keep a diverse range of
animals, particularly invertebrates that can be obtained and reared easily. Primary
teachers should plan studies with easily seen and kept invertebrates such as meal
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Keeping Pets Influences Children’s Ideas 447
worms (Tenebrio sp.) or brine shrimps, Artemia salina (E.g. Tomkins & Tunnicliffe,
2001) Special attention should be focused on children from families from lower
socioeconomic status, because these children showed fewer experiences of rearing
animals than other children. More research on children’s interest in invertebrates
and its influence through educational programmes (Lindemann-Matthies, 2005) is
needed.
In summary, asking children to draw the internal anatomy of familiar species shows
that Slovakian children have incomplete understandings of what is inside animals.
This is documented by the few children whose drawings reached Level 6 or 7.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank two anonymous referees for their constructive
comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript.
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